


No Shame

by anomalousGreenhorn



Category: The School for Good and Evil - Soman Chainani
Genre: Assumed Relationship, Canon Universe, F/F, Misunderstandings, macaroni and cheese.... mooing sounds..... cow jokes.... im hilarious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-09 09:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18635692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anomalousGreenhorn/pseuds/anomalousGreenhorn
Summary: Dot picks up on her friends' odd behavior, and realizes something quite shocking:Could Hester and Anadil be cheating on each other?





	No Shame

Hester and Anadil are a very unique couple. They hated the attention they received when they first started dating, and sent various hexes in the way of anyone who dared goggle at them (poor Hort had acquired several burns and bruises this way), yet seemed to know no shame when it came to public displays of affection.

At least—

Around Dot, they don't seem to.

“Could you _not_?” Dot moans, running a hand through her hair. She turns her back on the beds, where Ani and Hester’s “makeout session” is becoming more passionate by the minute. Dot grabs her coat and stomps out of their dorm room, slamming the door shut for emphasis. She doesn't imagine it phases the girls any.

“‘Can't have a simple discussion like a group of normal people anymore,” she mutters to herself. She's happy for her friends, of course. Everyone deserves to find love, and the witches of Coven 66 are not exempt, but, gosh, couldn't they wait until _after_ Dot’s left the room before sticking their tongues in each other’s mouths?

She feels something tickle her toes and looks down to find Anadi’s three rats. They huddle around the door to Malice 66, attempting to shrug into it from underneath.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you,” notes Dot, as the first one finds a crack suitable to squeeze under. The second quickly follows, although the third is a tad too plump to make it through.

Dot kneels down next to the rat. “Stinks being left behind, doesn't it?” she says to it. It blinks at her appreciatively.

“What do they call you, anyway?” Dot chips at the hole in the door with her nail, making it large enough for the rat. “Does Ani even have names for you guys?”

The rat responds in its hasty departure into the door. Dot stands, gathers her things, and heads back down the hall.

She didn't think much of the encounter afterwards. Her mistake.

* * *

 A few days later, Dot rushes into lunch after a book club running a little too long. She ends up setting herself down at her usual table with Hester and Anadil. Today, however, Anadil is nowhere in sight, and Ravan sits in her place.

“Where's Ani?” she asks, accidentally cutting into Hester and Ravan’s conversation. Hester, seated on top of the table as opposed to on the bench, shrugs without turning.

“Something about extra credit. Manley’s class, I think.”

Dot nods, digging into her macaroni-and-cheese. It makes a _moo_ -ing sound, cow residue apparently still present.

“Anyway,” Hester returns to her prior conversation, “my heart is devoted to Esme.”

Dot wrinkles her brow. What's Hester talking about? She's never heard of anyone named Esme. And Hester doesn't speak like that about people, not even Ani—

She didn't have time to mull it over, though, because Sophie suddenly butted in, squealing about her next big idea involving an unsanitary amount of beauty products.

* * *

A night or so later, Dot is minding her own business in her dorm, reading what she thinks is probably the best romance novel ever. She's so into it that she lets out a little screech when Anadil slams the door open.

Does she have to? Like. She isn't even mad. She's just being Anadil. But is it really necessary?

“—Callista, it was a love-at-first-sight kind of deal,” Ani’s in the middle of saying to Hort, who comes sauntering in after her. “Oh. Hey, Dot.”

Dot offers her a small wave before returning to the swashbuckling adventures of Princess Amelie as she fights an army of trained assassins in order to free her prince from the Evil dragon’s clutch. It’s such a great book, honestly.

* * *

 When Hester slams the door open, she's actually pissed. _Really_ pissed.

This is maybe a day later. Dot’s finished her novel, and has just started the sequel.

“Hi?” Dot offers.

Hester grunts in reply.

“Are you gonna tell me what happened, or?”

Hester walks past her, toward the closet at the other side of the room. While digging through it, she says, “Anadil’s being nitpicky. Whatever.”

Dot doesn't dwell on it. Couples are meant to fight, especially when they’re both hot-headed witches set on making most of the population’s existence absolutely miserable.

All three instances come flying back to her on Saturday in the library, though.

She's just checked out the entire series of that amazing romance novel and decides to crack the next book open in the peace and quiet of the room. Then Anadil comes darting in, frantic but focused.

Dot sidles up to her as she tears through spell books. “What’cha lookin’ for, Ani?”

“‘Thing for Callista,” she mumbles disparagingly, hardly casting Dot so much as a glance.

Dot blinks. She's heard that name before. Ani was telling Hort about this mysterious Callista just a few days ago, wasn't she? But there definitely isn't a student by that name. Right? Or maybe she's remembering it from somewhere else…

“What?” she ends up wondering.

“Gotta be something real nice,” Anadil replies, “Flower-scented, maybe…”

Dot takes a step back in shock. She watches in befuddlement as Anadil finishes up and eventually leaves the library, no “goodbye” or anything.

 _Something real nice_? Flower-scented? It’d almost sound like Anadil was planning a gift for a significant other, or a crush, or something. But Hester would vomit at the smell of any “flower-scented” gift. And Ani hadn't even said Hester’s name, she’d said—

 _Callista_. Callista. _Callista_?

Who the hell is Callista?

* * *

 She tries to confront Anadil on this. She really does. Multiple times. But Ani’s always distracted, mostly with school work.

So she turns to Hester, who apparently hasn't spoken to Anadil in a week.

“Hester—” she barges into Malice 66, desperate to corner her friend. “We have got to talk.”

“Can't,” shoots back Hester immediately, dashing around the room. She appears more dressed-up than normal — she's wearing a nicer black garbage bag; her hair’s a little neater. “Gotta find Esme.”

Dot’s jaw drops. “ _Hester_! You can't— you don't mean—” Dot gulps. “How could you?”

“What?” Hester asks absently. “She's the best of the bunch. A real winner.”

Hester starts to push past her, but Dot sticks an arm out to stop her. She meets Hester’s eye.

“Is she truly better than Ani? This Esme?”

Hester gives her a funny look, stifling what might be a chuckle. “You're weird, Dot.”

Then she's gone.

Dot flops onto the floor, a pile of depressive haze. Hester and Anadil are cheating on each other, there's no denying it now. Does the other know? Did they break up already? But surely they would tell Dot if they’d broken up — they're best friends!

And yet look where best friendship got them. Now everyone’s sneaking around, meeting secret girls and making them flower-scented gifts…

How can it be? Hester and Anadil had seemed so happy together!

Well. No more of this. If they're going out with other girls, they should at least be open about it. She won't let this nonsense continue any longer.

* * *

 Dot calls a mandatory Coven 66 meeting. An intervention, if you will. It takes some work, and once she manages to get both Hester and Anadil in their room, she locks the door to prevent any unwanted interruptions.

“What is it, Dot? We don't have all day,” Anadil groans.

“Yeah. Some of us have things to do,” adds Hester.

Dot wears a solemn expression. Slowly, she turns to the friends she thought she knew so well.

“Anadil, Hester— I know what's going on. I know you’ve been cheating on each other. And I won't sit by idly and watch this unfold anymore. You need to come clean.”

Both girls give her blank stares. ‘Must be better actors than she gave them credit for. Dot clears her throat.

“Don't give me that look. Esme and Callista. I know all about them—”

“Wait, wait, _wait_ ,” Anadil cuts her off, raising her hands in a defensive gesture. “You think we're _cheating_?”

Dot bites her lip. “I just told you. Esme and—”

“You think we're cheating on each other with _Esme and Callista_?” Hester inquires, eyes wide.

“Yes, now if you'd stop _interrupt_ —”

Anadil and Hester burst out laughing.

Dot stares, horrified.

Their laughter lasts for a good minute, cackles and snorts abound. Finally, Anadil is able to get a word out, while wiping her nose.

“Dot, Esme and Callista are my _rats_.”

Dot’s expression doesn’t falter. “ _What._ ”

As if on cue, three white mice appear on the beds. One, the longest and most agile, crawls onto Anadil's shoulder. “Meet Callista,” Anadil says, gesturing to it.

“And this is Esme,” throws in Hester, who now has the smallest of the rats curled up in her palm.

Dot is dumbstruck. “But how— you said—”

“Relax, Dot. Nobody's cheating. And you're the one that suggested we name them in the first place,” corrects Anadil.

Everything about these past two weeks hits Dot at full force.

 _Oh_.

She feels the familiar sensation of tiny toes skittering across her own. She picks the plump rat off the floor, stroking its head with her middle finger.

“That's Belinda,” clarifies Ani, pointing at the rat.

Dot sighs, gazing back and forth between the three rats and the two witches.

All that worrying for nothing.

“I was so scared, girls. I thought for sure something had happened. I’ll never complain about your unwarranted makeouts again—”

—except Hester and Anadil aren't listening to Dot anymore, too busy snogging, Anadil pushing Hester down against the pillows.

Dot inhales deeply. “ _No shame_ ,” she mumbles, turning to leave.

**Author's Note:**

> for clarification: when dot slammed the door, anadil and hester were knocked out of their makeout-y-funk and overheard her talking to the rats. theyre so used to reading each other's minds and whatnot that they assumed dot was in the loop about the rats' names. hester picked out the name esme, and took a liking to that particular rat. then esme got lost and anadil got pissed. ouch. hester was setting out to look for esme when dot encountered her. please don't ask about the flower-scented spells.


End file.
